Loving God's World - Pt 1

When I was asked by the women at my sister's church to give a talk on the environment my first reaction was to laugh and ask 'why?'. The only thing I've ever written about the environment was a paragraph or two about our worm farm on this blog!

But then she suggested that I do like to think about 'everyday' applications in the Christian life (it's what I claim my blog is all about!) - and this topic had lots of possibilities for that. And as I started to think about it, I realised that she was right, and that 1) I really had not been well thought-through on this topic up until this point, and 2) that I had not been loving God's world as I ought. So I jumped at the opportunity to think about a topic outside my 'comfort zone' and be challenged myself as I thought about it.

We know we live in a world that is a good world, created by God; but we also know it’s not forever, and that it’s not our permanent home. Our permanent home is in the new heavens and new earth that God is going to create. And in the mean time, we live in the midst of a world of humans who are in rebellion against God, and we are meant to stand out as different - shining like stars in the night sky as we hold out the gospel of Jesus. So how should these things affect the way we view the environmental issues of our day - global warming and biodiversity and GM food and so on - and how should they affect the way we live day by day?

I think, in the end, it comes down to two ways that the Bible teaches us to love the world, and two ways that we are not to love the world. (It all depends on what you mean by 'world' and what you mean by 'love'!). In my next two posts, I'll explain how I think we should NOT love the world, and then I'll follow up with two posts on how we should.

I'm looking forward to your thoughts and feedback as I go along!

Pic from Dreamstime.